Hello, and welcome back to TechCrunch Space. Let’s take a look at the news!
Want to tip? Email Aria. aria.techcrunch@gmail.com Or send us a message on Signal at 512-937-3988. You can also send a note to the entire TechCrunch staff at tips@techcrunch.com. For more secure communicationClick here to contact us, which includes SecureDrop instructions and a link to an encrypted messaging app.
The Starliner saga is finally over. For now. Just after midnight Saturday, Boeing’s Starliner capsule returned from the International Space Station and landed at White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico.
The capsule returned to Earth autonomously without its two crew members, NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who will remain on the station until February of next year. The space agency decided late last month that the two would return to Earth aboard a SpaceX Dragon capsule after the Starliner experienced technical issues early in its mission.
At a news conference after Saturday's flight, NASA's commercial crew program manager Steve Stitch called the flight “near perfect.” He added that the successful mission had stirred mixed emotions among the staff.
“From a human perspective, we're all happy about the successful landing, but some of us wished it had gone the way we planned,” he said. “We planned for the mission to land with Butch and Suni on board.”
A little tidbit not revealed in this article: By now you’ve probably heard that the first launch of Blue Origin’s massive New Glenn rocket wasn’t for NASA. The rocket was supposed to launch two spacecraft to Mars for NASA during an eight-day mission that began Oct. 13. But NASA announced Friday that it was delaying the mission, called ESCAPADE, until the spring of 2025, citing potential cost and technical issues related to defueling the two satellites.
From what I've heard, the day before NASA officially postponed the mission, there was an ATP (authority-to-proceed) meeting to decide whether or not to refuel the spacecraft. This decision will undoubtedly depend on the readiness of the launch vehicle, but refueling the spacecraft is a critical moment. It's understandable that they decided to just delay it rather than take the technical, financial, etc. risks of defueling.
This Week in Space History
This week we remember the tragedy of the September 11 attacks in New York City. Did you know that there was only one American outside of space when the attacks occurred? NASA astronaut Frank Culbertson was on the International Space Station at the time, and as soon as he learned of the attacks, he immediately went to take pictures of the place from space.
“There was this strange smoke coming out of the pillars going south of the city. I just read one of the news articles that I got, and it looks like we were looking at New York right after or around the time the second tower collapsed. It was horrible…” – Frank Culbertson
